Engine Oil Change ~ people from hot states, your schedule

you dont even go 3K on synthetic?

paranoid

any good engine sludge buildup cleaner when changing the oil?

^Seafoam

AMSOIL engine flush about 12 bucks but Seafoam works very good as well.

ive heard those flushes ruin the seals within the engine

when done correctly, i never had any problems at all. All of our cars use both brands, the accord and Rolla use the AMSOIL brand.

dang that is thin oil. though probably better than what i am using. i use 20W50, or if racing 60 weightfor the rolla, the accord uses 20w30.

I think the designers of the engines know what they are doing to recommend the oil it needs...

yeah bit they mainly go by regular driving and not so much of hard drivng such as i do.

I think they should have the low oil light turn on a bit more earlier than the way they have it right now.

Really no right or wrong answer on oil change intervals - more dependant on how the car is driven and driving conditions.

I run Mobil 1 Synthetic 5w30 with OEM filter every 7500-8000 miles. Driving is spent about 90/10 split highway/city. I've run it out as long as 12000 miles on a single oil change - UOA always comes out good - just additive package gets used up around that time.

We got a Camry that sees oils changes every 5K miles with regular dino juice (5w30) - 180K+ miles and zero sludge, burns about 1/3 quart every 5K miles. My Corolla uses no oil, has almost 110K miles on it, and was clean - last time I took the valvecover off.

the most i have gone has been 14,538 miles on one oil change when i had the 98 LE the most i have gone with the 01 has been 6K only.one question why do i have to use so thick of an oil grade on it. if i put something thinner it just gets burned up like nothing and in a very short amount of time.

12,000 miles. wow what car was this on?

sounds like the Rolla.

Yup. 2002 Corolla. I usually shoot for the 7500-8000 mie interval - but I know from past oil analysis that I could run 12K and higher and still be OK. But I live in a fairly moderate temperature - aside from bumber to bumber traffic everyday in my commute for a few miles - never had any oiling issues.

Switched to synthetics after the first oil change - ran the factory fill for about 5K miles. Wear metal levels were always shown to be much lower than average or zero at most changes. Run the engine out to redline at every day - pretty tough little car.

It's low pressure, not low level..as long as you have pressure, it'll stay off. Or..if you lose pressure and still have 4 quarts in, it'll come on.

that is amazing. seems to me like synthetic is the way to go. is it safe to just change over from regular to synthetic like that??

Pretty safe to switch over to synthetics from dino juice. Just have to keep from switching back and forth between the two.

Synthetics don't hurt seals and gaskets like they used to do - but they do have better solvency than regular oil and will slowly clean out deposits in your motor. Not usually a bad thing, clean engine is a good thing to have, but any deposits that were helping seal up worn, bad gaskets will be eventually removed and you might have a leaker on your hands.

But even cars with a significant number of miles on them can be switched over to synthetics with no problems at all. You don't need a flush or anything - just drain the dino out and refill with synthetic - good to go.

i only have 51k miles on mine so i doubt i'll have the gasket or seal issues.... i should look into this and perhaps do it on my next change.

I did, at about 120,000 miles..have 171,1xx on her now. About 1000-1500 miles & I'm half a quart low...so at 3k, it'll be a quart. Not too bad for a 170k engine, imho -- with synthetic, too